In July last year, Eldridge, a holding company with a network of businesses across entertainment, finance, technology, and real estate, invested in fan engagement startup Laylo as part of a strategic investment round.
Eldridge’s investment in the platform came seven months after it bought the pre-2020 music publishing catalog of Las Vegas rock band The Killers.
Now, the company has led a new investment round into Laylo, bringing the startup’s total funding to $8 million to date.
The new round also included participation from bunch of prominent names from both the investment community and music industry, including Third Prime Ventures, LVRN Management, Shane Mac (XMTP), Gil Weisblum (Ranger Global), Patricio Worthalter (POAP), Jonathan Strauss (Create Music Group), Damian Manning (HIFI), Summer Watson and Micah Johnson (Aku World), Sam Evitt (Method Music), and Moment Ventures.
The capital raised by the Company in July 2021 attracted investment from Y Combinator; Charlie Walker & Charles Attal, founders of C3 Presents; Jason Robins, CEO and Co-Founder of DraftKings; Kevin Mayer, Founder of Candle Media and Chairman of DAZN; The Orchard; Sony Music’s The Orchard; and Moment Ventures.
Laylo is described as a “CRM and Drops platform for creators and brands”.
Launched in 2021 by Alec Ellin and Saj Sanghvi, Laylo lets musicians, podcasters, celebrities, and brands automatically notify fans about new content, merchandise and tickets through SMS, Email, Instagram DM, Facebook Messenger, and Discord.
Laylo claims to power millions of “drops” per month across music, podcasting, sports, fashion, gaming, and other categories, with notable customers including Sam Smith, ODESZA, Dixie D’Amelio, Kodak Black, Miles Teller, The Black Keys, Rickie Fowler, and the Friends With Benefits DAO.
The Company reports to have achieved several growth and product development milestones over the last 12 months, including Iincreasing the number of creators using its platform by more than 5x to over 10,000.
Laylo also says that it established strategic partnerships with Acast, Fevo (sports and entertainment ticketing), Sound.xyz (music NFTs), Polygon (Web3 tooling), Hoo.be (link-in-bio), and Genies (digital fashion), as well as CD Baby, Pixelynx (gaming), Voice.com (NFT art collectibles).
“We were blown away by the product and saw how quickly our artists felt the same.”
Justice Baiden, LVRN Management
Justice Baiden, Co-Founder of LVRN Management, said: “We were blown away by the product and saw how quickly our artists felt the same.
“Within a few days of meeting the Laylo team, we were rolling out drops with DVSN and Westside Boogie and given the success, we’re bringing the rest of our roster onboard.
“Turning a social media following into a direct connection with fans is key for developing superstars and Laylo lets us take that to the next level. Laylo is already the definitive CRM platform for drops and the creator tools they’re rolling out are going to change the game, we knew we had to invest.”
“We’re excited to have even more capital to triple down on our mission of building the Creator CRM by growing the team, expanding to new verticals and launching new features faster.”
Alec Ellin, Laylo
Alec Ellin, Co-Founder and CEO of Laylo, said: “This year, we helped creators across music, podcasting, gaming, sports, and video create drop experiences that drove tens of millions in tickets, merchandise, content, and collectibles.
“We’re excited to have even more capital to triple down on our mission of building the Creator CRM by growing the team, expanding to new verticals and launching new features faster.
Added Ellin: “Since launch, we’ve heard that creators feel ignored by legacy platforms that don’t consider them to be a category worth building for. We’re here to fill the gap. Creators are the next generation of entrepreneurs in a hyper growth market and we’re building them the business tools they deserve.”Music Business Worldwide